I mentioned the other day that, unlike most people I know, song lyrics are important to me. One reason is that if you don't pay attention to lyrics, you miss the awesome phenomenon of peppy-sounding songs on depressing subjects. Catherine mentions Neutral Milk Hotel's "Holland, 1945" ("The only girl I've ever loved / Was born with roses in her eyes / But then they buried her alive / One evening 1945 / With just her sister at her side / And only weeks before the guns / All came and rained on everyone") in this regard. The best example, however, continues to be Nena's "99 Red Balloons", a cheery pop ditty about the nuclear destruction of the world.
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I Only Listen to Sad, Sad Songs
26 Nov 2006 03:00 pm
Comments (56)
The saddest happy lyrics belong to whatever [*] pop song you happen to be listening to at the moment. They are so happy, lyrical, sweet, lush, sensitive, life affirming, and upbeat that you want to disavow any and all connection to human nature and become a soul destroying viral carcinogen.
*Adjective denoting one of our 50 states. One that costs an arm and a leg to visit.
Here's one. The backstory of the song is that there's this little village in northern Baja where the fishermen sometimes run drugs up to San Diego. Some of the men apparently skimmed some of the profit, and the druglords decided to make an example of them, and others, by lining them up, along with their families, and executing them. The story is told from the persepective of a wife of one of the fishermen.
listen to bonnie 'prince' billy's new album called "the letting go". very good sad songs from one of the nation's best sad songwriters.
also, i think it's wrong to say most people you know don't listen to lyrics. perhaps they don't notice lyrics (though to no greater degree than they probably fail to notice the music itself), but to say that they aren't listening to them sounds strange, sort of wrongish. because unless you mean "listening" metaphorically, what exactly are they listening to if not what's playing? (and if you do mean it metaphorically, what do you mean?)
I think one of the best examples of this phenonmenon is when President Reagan adopted Born in the USA for is '84 reelection campaign. Apparently, no one on the Reagan realised that the song is a bitter indictment of the country's treatment of its Vietnam vets. Another great example is Down Home Alabama which is a reactionary, seemingly pro-segregationist song but I always turn it up when it comes on the radio. I know the lyrics and disapprove, but fuck it, the song is catchy.
Wilco used to be the king of this - the entire album Summerteeth is great, cheerful pop about horrible characters doing horrible things. On a ligher note, Marit Larsen has the most cheerful I'm-not-taking-your-cheating-ass-back pop song I've ever heard, complete with slide whistle.
And "About the Weather" by 10000 Maniacs, of course.
On a football-related topic, how about the 49ers blowing the game by opting to kick a field goal deep in the Rams' territory late in the game on a fourth-and-an-inch? If they go for it, they probably score a touchdown, and even if they don't, they run down the clock and pin the Rams down with a long way to go. Did Norv Turner really make that call? Or was he overruled?
Let's not forget "The Slow Descent into Alcoholism" by the New Pornographers. Not that you have to be listening particularly closely to figure out what that one is about.
It's also worth noting that if you happen to know a little German, you don't need to hear the lyrics to know "Komm, süsser Tod" (Come, sweet Death) is not going to be very happy.
One of my favorites is "We Both Go Down Together" by the Decemberists. I had to stop a friend of mine from putting it on a lovey-dovey mix tape once. His listening stopped at the "My love, my love" chorus; he had no idea it was about a classist rich guy mindfucking a poor pregnant girl into a faux-romantic murder/suicide.
My favorite: Girlfriend in a Coma.
'Alcoholic' by Starsailor
granted, the song sounds a bit sad in parts, but it's also very, very catchy - which is why I once had the rather surreal experience of watching thousands of fans passionately chanting:
"Don't you know you've got your Daddy's eyes?
Daddy was an alcoholic."
ohhh yeah
gotta love festivals
I always enjoyed the classic punk rock party version of "99 Red Balloons" by 7 Seconds (even if it doesn't work quite as well as the original [although turning it into a punk rock party anthem didn't ruin it the way that Puff Daddy ruined "Every Breath You Take"]).
For another fine example of this kind of thing see almost every song the Stone Roses (one of my two or three favorite bands of my generation) recorded (although those sweet songs like "Going Down" are pretty wonderful too).
The Cherry Poppin' Daddies are also great for this. Just a couple examples: "Zoot Suit Riot", the big hit, is about 1940s race riots, and the absurdly peppy "Uncle Ray" is about a guy who has to be act as the next-of-kin after a homeless guy in his neighbourhood dies (sample line: "All the neighbours used to laugh and throw snowballs at him/And now I live alone, and when it snows I try not to think of them".
There's a whole 'nother genre of songs people think are depressing but are in fact highly amusing - mainly Smiths song, in fact, but it still annoys me that people consider 'Girlfriend in a Coma', for example, to be a depressing song - I mean, come on, it's hilarious!
Is 'Come Up And See Me' by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel at all know in the States? Very chirpy song disguising the most bitter mean-spirited lyrics ever.
Whoops - looks like someone got to 'Girlfriend in a Coma' before me...
Art is strange. We are unlikely ever to get as good a song about 9/11 as we got about "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." Go figure.
, but it still annoys me that people consider 'Girlfriend in a Coma', for example, to be a depressing song - I mean, come on, it's hilarious!
Fair point.
it still annoys me that people consider 'Girlfriend in a Coma', for example, to be a depressing song - I mean, come on, it's hilarious!
Yes. In this instance, people are focusing too much on the refrain; the whole thing's a joke. "I know, I know -- it's really serious."
Down Home Alabama which is a reactionary, seemingly pro-segregationist song but I always turn it up when it comes on the radio. I know the lyrics and disapprove
Maybe you *don't* know them so well; it's "Sweet Home Alabama." ;)
But yeah, I too confess, that song brings out the inner redneck in me. Makes the whole "Horst Wessel" thing easier to understand, I guess.
You Are My Sunshine.
I think a few commenters are misunderstanding what he means. "We Both Go Down Together" doesn't sound happy at all; sounding like a pop song doesn't mean it sounds happy. Simple three chord rock doesn't necessarily equate to sounding happy.
I think "Just Like Heaven" is the textbook definition of the phenomenon. The pretty keyboard, the major chords, the up-tempo beat. He's happy, he's happy, he's happy, oh! she fell of a cliff. In fact, if the phenomenon didn't exist, neither would the Cure.
Also, "I Need a New Heart" and "Tears of a Clown" are good.
I appear to have missed the "I Think... " in "I Think I Need a New Heart."
I'm surprised that none of Matthew's picky, hipster-music-loving readers have yet pointed out that M Ward's "Sad sad song," while a great and sad song, is hardly peppy. There. Now I have.
Also, Randy Newman probably deserves a mention here--not just for Political Science, but Short People, I love LA, God's Song, A Wedding in Cherokee County, etc. etc.
Nick Lowe -- Marie Provost:
"She was a winner / But became the doggy's dinner / She never meant that much to me / Whoa, poor Marie"
How is it that no one's mentioned "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins yet?
I remember getting my hands on some Misfits tracks for the first time. I expected dour, downbeat, metallic chord progression, with some heinously angry lead singer yelling at me. This from, yknow, the skull-centric merchandise and album art. Instead, I got that catchy, poppy punk sound. There's "Last Caress" and "Some Kind Of Hate." It's lyrics about murdering babies set to a Ramones beat.
Also, Bennett's point about My Sunshine is fantastic. I can't believe we sang that in nursery school.
"Oliver's Army" is about as peppy a song as one can imagine about conscription of unemployable young Irishmen as cannon fodder for imperialistic wars. "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene" is not actually a Chuck Berry rave-up but is in fact about a serial rapist. Both are often played in bars in a drink and be merry spirit.
"The Green, Green, Grass of Home" is sickly sweet until the last verse, when you find that the guy is on death row and will go home tomorrow in a coffin.
Getting back to peppy vapid pop, if The Cardigans' Lovefool is wrong, I don't want to be right.
The granddaddy of these has to be Phil Ochs' "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends." Maybe it's a little too tongue-in-cheek, but who doesn't like a ragtime romp about Kitty Genovese?
I'd also suggest "The Right Profile" by The Clash -- the most cheerful song on London Calling, and it's all about Montgomery Clift's slo-mo suicide. See also Neutral Milk Hotel's "The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1" and Eels' "I Like Birds."
How is it that no one's mentioned "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins yet?
Today doesn't sound happy, though. That's a distinctly mournful tune. The Pumpkins are not, generally speaking, a cheery-sounding group.
I'm surprised that none of Matthew's picky, hipster-music-loving readers have yet pointed out that M Ward's "Sad sad song," while a great and sad song, is hardly peppy.
What does that have to do with anything?
If there were no video, I think Suzanne Vega's "Luka" would have to fit in here. It's got a bright beat, and if you're not listening to lyrics, the whole child abuse thing would never occur to you.
and it's all about Montgomery Clift's slo-mo suicide
But who would ever know that from listening to the song? I mean, I'm impressed *you* know; doubtless you are the person who could explain to me what the fuck "The Card Cheat" is about; but it's surely not obvious.
& "King of Carrot Flowers" definitely doesn't sound happy.
Maybe this is too typical to be interesting, but how a serious-sounding song that's actually kinda light-hearted? The Smiths "There is a Light That Never Goes Out." Morrissey at his most funereal sounding, but the lyrics are over-the-top hilarious:
And if a ten-ton truck
Kills the both of us
To die by your side
Well, the pleasure - the privilege is mine
Imogen Heap has some songs like this. Her voice is so ethereal you might miss the undercurrent in songs like "Hide and Seek" or "Sleeping Cars".
Phil Ochs is cheating in this thread.
If you're going to let in funereal-sounding Morrissey songs with over-the-top hilarious lyrics you might as well paste the whole Smiths catalogue into the thread and have done with it. I also protest "Just Like Heaven"; it doesn't sound happy, Robert Smith never sounded happy in his life. He's got a built-in whine.
An anonymous correspondent suggests "Mack the Knife," especially in Bobby Darin's version; it's a happy swinging song about a murderous gangster! A lot of Brecht-Weill songs work this way. Brecht-Eisler songs don't sound so cheery.
(Anderson, I think it's saying that the Empire is doomed and was a sham alll along, and that the soldiers who give their lives for it have been deceived.)
"Ants Marching" by Dave Matthews. One of the most upbeat and popular songs of the 90s (you couldn't avoid it on the radio if you tried in the summer of 1995). It is quite straighforwardly about conformity and doing what everyone else is doing until you die. It is basically "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation" in song form, with a really catchy hook and the best rock and roll violin solo I've ever heard.
Even the people here who know it is about conformity talk about how upbeat it is and how it puts them in a good mood. It does the same for me, too, meaning notwithstanding.
http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=89
The following all sung atop feel-goody, Flaming Lips style Fridmann bombast:
"This was how I won the west
Charity, a joke that friendly cities think that we believe
Or so it seems
We kicked and punched and stabbed to death
And everyone applauded my fine actions I was overcome
You ask me what I’ve seen
Hate is all I’ve seen
Hate is in the air
Come on people feel it like you just don’t care
Everlasting hate feel it in the people where it’s warm and great
Come on hate yourself everyone here does so just enjoy yourself
Hate is everywhere, look inside your heart and you will find it there
You ask me what I mean
Hate is all I mean"
The Delgados--All You Need Is Hate
And a classic of the genre... Maxwell's Silver Hammer by the Beatles
Okay maybe not sad, but decidedly not the playful song it sounds like.
Hope you got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
Looks like were in for nasty weather.
One eye is taken for an eye.
Don't go around tonight,
Well, its bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon on the rise.
Today doesn't sound happy, though. That's a distinctly mournful tune. The Pumpkins are not, generally speaking, a cheery-sounding group.
Well, sure, it's not "I Want to Hold Your Hand". But the melody is pretty light and happy, the lyrics of the chorus are completely upbeat, and the video, if I'm remembering correctly, involves a milktruck joyride that ends up with the band members splattering each other with paint, like something out of a Warrant video. What could be cheerier?
I had to stop a friend of mine from putting it on a lovey-dovey mix tape once. His listening stopped at the "My love, my love" chorus
boy did it ever used to chap my ass when johnny-come-lately jumpers on r.e.m.'s bandwagon used to hold hands and moon when they would start playing "the one i love", which is about as cold and hateful a song about objectification as has ever been written. and you gotta love that oh so romantic chorus: michael, screaming like a damned soul - "FIIIIIIIIIIIRE!!!!!"
of course people never really listened to "every breath you take" by the police or "possession" by sarah mclachlan, which are both about stalkers, the latter with ultra-creepy connotations of rape and murder.
Damn all you people who like lyrics. What's wrong with a catchy beat and a fun tune?
Plus, 50% of the time, I can't understand the lyrics even if I try. And if I look them up, often they are something like:
Come on with me through ruined LiPGLOCK Accross Tangian deserts we'll FLOck MADcap Medusa Flank my Foghorn We'll change four seasons with our first born.
I mean, how the f*%@&% was I supposed to figure THAT out?
Matthew-
Just FYI-- Someone (me and probably others) *did* notice the Garbage lyric-reference in the subject line. (Just letting you know your efforts toward clever and allusive title-writing are not going unappreciated.)
Don't stand so close to me by the Police might qualify here. ALso do do do do, de da da da.
I'd think 16 Military Wives would be a better Decemberists nominee than We both go down together.
I point you to my homeboys in Barenaked Ladies, the lords and masters of ironic misery. That radio-friendly, peppy quasi-hit "Pinch Me"? Actually a thoroughly gloomy little tune about chronic depression.
For a jarring contrast between buoyant melody and devistating lyrics, nothing beats "Walking On Broken Glass" by Annie Lennox...
You were the sweetest thing that I ever knew
But I don't care for sugar honey if I can't have you
Since you've abandoned me
My whole life has crashed
Won't you pick the pieces up
Cause it feels just like I'm walking on broken glass
Walking on walking on broken glass (2x's)
The sun's still shining in big blue sky
But it don't mean nothing to me
Oh let the rain come down
Let the wind blow through me
I'm living in an empty room
With all the windows smashed
And I've got so little left to loose
That it feels just like I'm walking on broken glass
Walking on walking on broken glass (2x's)
And if you're trying to cut me down
You know that I might bleed
Cause if you're trying to cut me down
I know that you'll succeed
And if you want to hurt me
There's nothing left to fear
Cause if you want to hurt me
You're doing really well my dear
Now everyone of us was made to suffer
Everyone of us was made to weep
But we've been hurting one another
And now the pain has cut too deep
So take me from the wreckage
Save me from the blast
Lift me up and take me back
Don't let me keep on walking
I can't keep on walking on broken glass
Walking on walking on broken glass
I think one of the best examples of this phenonmenon is when President Reagan adopted Born in the USA for is '84 reelection campaign. Apparently, no one on the Reagan realised that the song is a bitter indictment of the country's treatment of its Vietnam vets.
Another good example from the same album is "Glory Days", which is less a celebration of nostalgia than it is an acknowledgement of the fact that it's people with little present or future who spend all their spare time drinking and lost in the past.
A huge hit in this genre, well before Matthew's time, was Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again, Naturally", although I'm not sure it fits the category exactly because you can't very well ignore the lyrics. But it's superficially cheerful, at any rate.
Happy, shiny, capitalist song:
Sometimes you gotta be an s.o.b.
You wanna make a dream reality
Competition? Send ‘em south
If they’re gonna drown
Put a hose in their mouth
Do not pass ‘go’
Go straight to hell
I smell that meat hook smell
Or my name’s not Kroc
That’s Kroc with a ‘k’
Like ‘crocodile’
But not spelled that way, now
It’s dog eat dog
Rat eat rat
Kroc-style
Boom, like that
--Mark Knopfler, “Boom Like That,” Shangri-La
And you just can't go wrong with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones:
There was a girl
and I dont' know her name either
She gave me love and I said I'd never leave her
And if I did
I'd come back someday and find her
Maybe I will, I should write down a reminder
One Day
One day who knows?
Someday
Someday I suppose
--Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Someday I Suppose"
A few favorites in this genre:
Beulah's "A Good Man Is Easy to Kill," which is about dying in a car crash, and "Gene Autry," which is about going out west to give up on life.
"You Can Make Him Like You," which inspired a sing-along at the Hold Steady show the other night, but is in fact a heartbreaking song about the way women get socially conditioned to get the shit end of the stick in relationships. It's the best song on the topic not written by Liz Phair.
Speaking of which, "6'1"" by Liz Phair is a great up-tempo song.
Basically every song on "The Winter Is Coming" by Elf Power is about death, including the goofily sweet-natured "The People Underneath."
Quasi does this so much it gets a little schticky.
(I'm a couple days late to this, so no one will ever read it, but anyway...)
A couple people mention Bobby Darin and "Mack the Knife": right artist, wrong song.
Darin does a song called "Artificial Flowers" (a #20 song in 1960). The song is every bit as peppy as "Mack...", maybe more so. But the lyrics tell the story of 9 year old beggar-girl Annie, whose parents have died. Annie sells artificial flowers on the street corner "fashioned from Annie's despair" and "watered with all her young tears". That is, until she freezes to death at the end of the song. It is utterly bizzare.
I'd be happy to email the mp3 to anyone who wants to hear it.
Sterolab is excellent at this. Well, not *sad* songs per se, but certainly "non-happy".
Comments closed December 10, 2006.
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Heads in the Sand
Also "Komm, süsser Tod" from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Posted by ben wolfson | November 26, 2006 3:12 PM